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Fethard Walled Town Festival This WeekendPupils of Killusty National School proudly displaying some of their heraldic banners they have prepared for the Medieval Festival Fancy Dress Parade in Fethard at 2pm on this coming Sunday 24th August.

The renowned 'Lee Valley String Band' from Cork will entertain by the Town Wall from 3pm to 5pm with their particular type of Old Time and Bluegrass music. The current line-up includes original member Chris Twomey autoharp; Mick O'Brien, guitar; Mick Daly, banjo; Kevin Gill, dobro; Hal O'Neill, fiddle (brother of Anne Connolly, Fethard Post Office, and Eoghain O'Neill from Moving Hearts); Brendan Butler, mandolin and Pete Brennan, bass. Chris, Brendan, the two Micks, Kevin and Pete all share vocal duties. The band featured on the Hummingbird / RTE project 'Other Voices 3', on RTE television in April 2005, and in July of that year, they shared the stage of the Cork Opera House with The Blind Boys Of Alabama.

Fethard musician Aidan Ward returns for his annual visit this weekend to play for the Walled Town Medieval Festival. Aidan threw in the safe pensionable job as an engineer over two decades ago and took his chance in the World armed with only his voice and a guitar. He is currently based in Connemara, but has worked as a musician all over the globe.

The team of musicians travelling with him seems to be expanding each year. This year he is bringing Tom Portman on guitar and dobro, the Jazz duo 'Some Like it Hot' which is comprised of Rick Dunkley on bass and Eithne Hannigan on violin, also playing will be Dave Donoghue on harmonica and vocals, Fionn Conneely on percussion and Keith Colville on guitar. Most of these musicians can be checked out on their various MySpace pages.

Aidan plays and records regularly with all of these musicians, but this is the first time that they will all be on the same stage together. The last two gigs have been an overwhelming success. The venue for the gig is McCarthy's Medieval Garden or the Marquee by the Town Wall if the weather is poor. Tickets are €10 from McCarthy's or at the door on the night.

A 'Battle of the Bands' will take place on Saturday afternoon in McCarthy's Medieval Garden (or in the Marquee by the Town Wall if the weather is inclement) as part of the Walled Town Festival. Five bands will take to the stage, kicking off at 2pm. The entry fee is €5, payable on the door.
The bands are 'Push to Break', 'Deadbeat', 'Naked Mr America', 'Zero Tolerance' and 'The Loaded Kings'. Thanks to South East Scaffolding for building the Stage and Premier Music in Clonmel for the sound and lights.

At 8pm on Saturday 23rd August the distinguished Irish Harpist Paul Dooley, will give a special concert and talk in Holy Trinity Church of Ireland. Paul Dooley is one of the very few Irish people who play the Irish harp in its historical form and style and studied the construction of medieval Irish harps in Dublin during the early 1980s and has built several harps. He started his performing career on the metal-strung harp in 1986 and has appeared on numerous CD recordings and television soundtracks.

His repertoire consists mostly of traditional Irish dance music, including jigs and reels, some of which he has learned from recordings and printed music but mostly learned from other musicians: pipers, flute players and fiddlers. This music proves a real challenge for any type of harp and consequently hasn't been explored very much on the instrument. Admission includes a Cheese and Wine Reception and a recital from special guest musicians 'Doulç'amor' from France, Tickets are €10 each and are available at the door or from Fethard Post Office.

The highlight of the weekend will be the Fancy Dress Parade at 2pm on Sunday led by five Irish Wolfhounds followed by students from the local students of St. Patrick's Boys School, Nano Nagle Primary School and Killusty National School displaying their colourful heraldic plaques made under the supervision of local artist Pat Looby.

We invite adults and children to also take part in the fancy dress parade from the Town Hall to the Town Wall where we will have lots of family entertainment. There are lots of prizes for the best individual adult and child entries. The Fancy Dress Parade open to all ages will start from outside the Town Hall at 2pm where local bands 'Zero Tolerance' and 'Naked Mr America' will also play their music from 12 noon to 1.30pm.

On Sunday we will also have the usual craft and food stalls by the Town Wall, along with archery, re-enactors, puppeteers, nature walks, shell mandala making and fun for all the family. Tell all your friends to dress up and come along.

The Walled Towns Day Medieval Festival is part-funded by Fethard & Killusty Community Council, The Heritage Council of Ireland, Failte Ireland and South Tipperary County Council.

New General Superior from Fethard
Sr. Margaret O'Brien O.S.U. photographed with her father, Pat O'Brien, from The Valley, Fethard.

Sr. Margaret O'Brien OSU, of the U.S. Province, is the eldest daughter of Pat O'Brien from The Valley, Fethard, and was recently elected General Superior at the recent General Chapter of the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk in Belgium on August 5, 2008.
The Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk minister in India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Belgium, Canada, United States and Guyana.
John Cornelius Martin Lambertz, a holy priest of Tildonk, Belgium, founded the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters of Tildonk on 30 April, 1818. After 1900, new foundations were established in India (1903), Canada (1914), and the United States of America (1924). In 1935 four young Fethard girls, Paula Carey, Nuala O'Brien, Kitty McCarthy and Monica Kevin sailed from Cobh to join the Ursuline Order in New York. In 1995 all four happily celebrated sixty years in religious life. Sr. Vincent McCarthy died in 1999. The other three, Sr. Paula Carey, Sr. Philomena O'Brien and Sr. Monica Kevin are still based in New York with Sr. Margaret O'Brien.

Trust Golf Classic 2008
The Frank Purcell Memorial Golf Classic in aid of Trust will take place on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September at Slievenamon Golf Club. This event is now in its 6th year and has raised over €100,000 for the Trust charity, which was founded 30 years ago by Fethard’s Alice Leahy.

Team of four will cost €200 and Tee boxes are €100 each. The competition will run over two days in Slievenamon Golf Club. The prizes will be presented at a Barbecue in McCarthy’s in Fethard on the Saturday night. Music on the night is by Philip Donnelly & Foul Play.

Entries can be given to Chris Coen, Vincent Woodlock, John Leahy, Vincent Murphy, Eoin Whyte or to Brendan Kenny at Slievenamon Golf Club. More information about the Trust Charity is available on the website: trust-ireland.ie

Two Presentation Sisters are visiting Fethard for a well-earned break and will also participate in a congregational Tertianship programme over the next three months.

Sr. Janet teaches secretarial and computer skills to boys and girls in Hatcliffe township in Harare. Most of them come without the relevant exam results due to the poor conditions and standards in Zimbabwe’s overcrowded secondary schools. Sr. Janet has, first of all, to try and get them through O Level exams. Her stories of the circumstances and sacrifices of the students are heartrending.

Sr. Emily is a nurse midwife in the Provincial Hospital in Marondera where she lives. The hospital is without medicine or electricity and has the benefit of running water for about five hours each day due to the prevailing economic and political situation. Sr. Emily works in the maternity unit and her accounts of mothers having to bring fees, food and water to the hospital are harrowing, since most have neither. Many do not have clothes for their newborn babies. Some have benefited from the blankets and baby vests made by the Tuesday night Knitting Club at the Convent and by other generous knitters in Fethard. To all of these, Sr. Emily is truly grateful and brought a touching letter of thanks from the Matron of the hospital.

Both Srs. Janet and Emily do a huge amount of outreach work with needy families apart from their regular work. Some of this is funded from the money donated by the generous people of Fethard who sponsor the local Presentation Sisters annual participation in the Women’s Mini Marathon and Christmas Clothes Sale. For all of these they are sincerely thankful.

Local Flooding
Flooding on Saturday 16th August caused this concrete tank to float four feet above ground level. The tank was recently installed in a Fethard farm ten feet under ground level to be used for storing slurry. Due to the recent heavy rains the ground water level rose and so did the tank — the only consolation was the tank was manufactured to a very high standard as many others would have cracked under the strain.

A stranded calf waiting to be rescued.

Flooding on the Cloneen Road

Flooding at Cramps Bridge on the Cloneen Road where The Bannouge meets the Clashawley.

Fethard Macra na Feirme
Club members are looking forward to taking part in and supporting the Guinness World Record breaking 24 hour 100m relay race which has been organised by former club member Brendan Morrissey. This is taking place in Clonmel on Saturday, August 23rd and is aid of the Alzheimer Society which is indeed a very worthy cause. As part of the Medieval Festival taking place in Fethard on Sunday, August 24th we will be manning the stocks and sponges which promise entertaining viewing! Our next club meeting is taking place in McCarthys on Friday, August 29th at 9pm. We are looking for people interested in participating in volleyball and indoor soccer. All level of players welcome. For further info email fethardmacra@gmail.com or contact Michael (087-9019443) or Una (087-6882683).

First Steps Playschool
First Steps Playschool will re-open at the Tirry Community Centre in Barrack Street after the summer break on Monday 1st September at 9.30pm.

Eleven teams took part in the three-weekend competition and some players showed their age more than others but despite the creaking bones a wonderful display of rugby was shown by all that took part. It was a first for some of the players but they showed great willing and it proves that “you can teach an old dog new tricks” and you are never too old to start. This was proven by the great response to the festival.
The organising committee would like to thank all those teams that took part and made it such a success. Thanks also to our on site ‘first-aider’ Liam Hayes, and not forgetting Paul Shanahan whose expertise at delegating parking spaces made sure there wasn’t one car out of place.

Thanks also to the local pubs that sponsored and contributed to the success of the festival — Burke’s Bar, Lonergan’s and McCarthys for the food and entertainment on each of the evenings. Thanks also to Paul Scully (Photostation, Thurles), Tony Fitzgerald (Fitzgerald Electrical, Cahir) and Fethard Rugby Football Club, for their kind and generous sponsorship of the trophies each player received.

The trophy winners were: Cup - ‘Ruck & Roll’ (Clonmel); Plate - ‘Gravediggers’ (Fethard); Shield - ‘Badgers’ (Fethard). Once again a big thank you to all those who participated and hopefully we will see you all again next year.

Thurles Tag Rugby team who took part in the Fethard Rugby Club's Tag Rugby Festival. Back L to R: Seamus Fogarty, Pat Fogarty, James Stapleton, Robert O'Connell, Tom Stapleton, Mick Moclair. Front L to R: Nicky Irwin, Rena O'Brien, Michael Irwin and John Ryan. Veronica O'Toole was also on the team.

On Friday 15th August in Clonmel we had a close call on a scoreline, Fethard 0-17, Cahir 0-15, with Cahir coming back very strongly in the second half having been in front at the break 0-9 to 0-5. Playing well on the night were Gavin Fitzgerald in defence, Cathal Gorey in the centre, up front Eoin O’Connell again outstanding with Daniel Hickey and Alan Lawrence very much to the fore. Team was: JP McGrath, Gavin Fitzgerald, James Kelly, Ciaran O’Connell, Aaron Donovan 0-1, Thomas O’Connell, Aaron Conran, Jamie O’Keeffe 0-1, Cathal Gorey, Daniel Hickey, Eoin O’Connell 0-9 (4f), Dean Tobin, Alan Lawrence 0-5, Kieran Ryan 0-1, and Mathew Fitzgerald. Subs used were: Kevin Hayes, Frankie Donovan, Jonathan Fleming and Joe Fogarty.
Fixtures: Senior Football South Semifinal against Ardfinnan on this Sunday 24th August in Monroe at 2pm preceded by JFA Semifinal, Fethard against Ballylooby at 12.45pm.

Lotto Jackpot was not won and we had no match three winner. The numbers drawn were: 7, 16, 22 and 30. Five drawn tickets won €30 each for: Austy Godfrey (Derryluskin, Fethard); Denis O’Meara (51 St Patricks Place, Fethard), Louis Coen (Killusty, Fethard), Sasha Doyle (Woodvale Walk, Fethard), and Kim Condon (Merry’s Garage, Clonmel). The €50 Lucky Dip was won by Bernie Byrne (Claremore, Fethard). We would like to thank Harrington Developments for supplying the tickets.

Summer Camp
Fethard Juvenile GAA Club will hold their annual Summer Camp from Wednesday 27th to Friday 29th August in the GAA Field. Places can be secured by contacting Caroline Sheehan (Tel: 086 1713502).

Next week’s Jackpot continues at €10,000 and the Jackpot sellers prize is €1000. You can now play our lotto online from your own computer CLICK HERE or the image below.

Best Wishes to Darragh
Fethard and Killusty Community games committee would like to wish the very best of luck to 7-year-old Darragh Lynch from Coolmore who will compete in the Under-8 60 meter race at the HSE Community Games National Finals in Mosney this weekend for the second successive year.

Can you run, walk or crawl 100m?If your answer is yes then the place to be is Dr. Pat O'Callaghan Sports Complex Clonmel on Saturday 23rd August.

On Friday 22nd August at 22.10 all eyes will be on Beijing for the men's 4 x 100M relay final but when the clock strikes midnight the real relay begins. When the clock strikes midnight the starting gun will signal the beginning of 24hr 100m relay challenge which will surpass all the excitement in Beijing. There are many people who always envisaged taking part in such a high class event but never get their time below 2.5 min! for them there is hope. The 2008 Relay to Remember starts at midnight on Friday 22nd August and runs for the full 24 hours until midnight Saturday 23rd. This is a world record attempt to get into the Guinness Book of Records for the most people to participate in a 100M relay in 24 hours.

This event is a fundraiser for the South Tipperary Alzheimer Society and its hope to raise over €10,000. Event organiser Brendan Morrissey is hoping that over 2000 people will volunteer to participate in this event. The current record for this event stands at 801 people which equates to less than 40 people per hour. Brendan is appealing to all able bodied and not so able bodied people from South Tipperary and surrounding areas to contact Bernie at 052 32717 to collect their sponsorship cards and book a time slot to take part in this event. His target is to have a person each minute completing their 100Ms which will almost double the existing record if this can be achieved it will be a difficult target to meet but given that there are 17,008 people living in Clonmel and over 83,000 living in the South Tipperary region we only need a small percentage of highly motivated people to make this event a huge success.

Brendan is making a special appeal to people who finish work in the early hours of Saturday morning who would make extra effort to find their way to Clonmel and give a couple of minutes of their life and a small contribution to this worthy charity. Get your phones out order your sponsorship cards get your running shoes on to run the 100Ms and a fist full of Popeye's Spinach to ensure you don't run out of energy before you reach the finish line. For further details log on to www.mgmkapital.ie and click on the charity page.

In the last few years, the interest in vintage cars and tractors has become very prominent throughout the country and with that many new clubs have been set up.

After a lot of consideration, on the 10th March, a public meeting was held in The Village Inn in Moyglass and the club was officially founded. Sean O'Donovan was elected chairperson, Pat O’Loughlin (Secretary), Seamus Barry (Treasurer), Michael Trehy (PRO) and Ray Walsh (Safety Officer). Over the past few months the club has gone from strength to strength and now has over 50 members.
Also on that night, it was decided to hold a static show and road run for cars and tractors, and in conjunction with this event, to raise funds for South Tipperary Hospice.

On the 27th July 2008, 100 vehicles assembled in Kevin McGivern’s field in Moyglass which included people from Clonoulty, Thurles, Slievenamon and Newcastle. There was a wide variety of tractors which included Ferguson 20s, Lanz Bulldog’s, a Fiat 411R, and numerous Massey Fergusons, and an even wider variety of cars to name a few, Triumphs, Morris Minors, Anglias, Austin Cambridges, a 1966 Rover and a vintage Porsche. Also on display, were a vintage fire engine and a recovery vehicle which dated back to the 1950s. The oldest car on display was 86 years old.

Mick O'Neil, Farnaleen, Fethard

At around 1 pm, the first tractor driven by Mick O'Neill of Moyglass, hit the road for the run followed closely by the cars. The run lasted approximately 5 hours with stop offs in Fethard and Dualla. Then everybody returned to the village in n for a delicious barbeque courtesy of Declan Walsh. Overall a very successful day was had by all with a lot of positive feedback enhanced by fabulous weather.
The committee would like to sincerely thank all those who participated on the day and all those who gave graciously to our hospice collection and we look forward to an even bigger and better day next year.